A new category of high-voltage pulser based on dynamic plasma techniques

High-speed plasmas generated by low-impedance, pulsed electrical sources are used to displace and compress magnetic flux in a variety of arrangements involving multi-turn coils. The output impedance of power from these coils is much higher than the original source impedance, and the output pulse time is much shorter than the input pulse. Dynamic plasma techniques thus provide a new category of high-voltage pulser, capable of simultaneously achieving voltage multiplication and pulsetime compression. Arrangements based on implosion, inverse-pinch and coaxial plasma-gun flows are discussed.